Article excerpted from "The
Spanish Borderlands: A chronicle of old Florida and the Southwest", edited
by Herbert Eugene Bolton, 1918.

Hernando de Soto
was about thirty-six years of age when he was appointed adelantado of
Florida. He was "a gentleman by all four descents," and had recently been
created by the Emperor, a knight of the order of Santiago. He had already
led a career of adventure not often equaled. He had served under Pedrarias
in Nicaragua, and, by his marriage to Pedrarias' daughter, Dona Isabel, had
become brother-in-law to
Vasco Nunez de Balboa, discoverer of the Pacific
Ocean. Later, in
following the fortunes of Francisco Pizarro in Peru, he had "distinguished himself
over all the captains and principal personages present, not only at the
seizure of Atahualpa (Inca), lord of Peru, and in carrying
the City of Cuzco, but, at all other places where so ever he went and found
resistance." Thus does the Gentleman of Elvas, comrade of Don Hernando and
narrator of his exploits, pen his biography in a line. A man of blood and
iron, wherever he "found resistance" there, Hernando de Soto was
roused to action. He brooked neither opposition from foes nor
interference from friends; and, for him, no peril, no hardship,
could surpass in bitterness the defeat of his will.

His nature was to be read plainly in his swarthy, strongly lined face
and burning black eyes, and in the proud carriage of his head; so
that, though he was hardly more than of medium stature, men remarked
him and gave him room. He had an agreeable smile at rare moments;
he was renowned for courage, and his skill as a horseman was noted among
those lovers of horses, the Spanish nobles. He was able to set up a fine
establishment and to lend money to the Emperor Charles V, from whom he was
seeking high office. And so, the Emperor made him Governor of Cuba and adelantado of Florida.